1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Windows SideShow technology, and more particularly, to a method and system for enabling a SideShow device to retrieve system information from a computing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Windows Vista™ is a commercially available operating system from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., hereinafter referred to as WINDOWS VISTA. With WINDOWS VISTA operating systems becoming the dominant operating systems for personal computers, a variety of software or hardware applications compatible with Vista-based computer systems are also becoming more and more popular. One of the Vista-based software/hardware applications is Windows SideShow, which is a technology that supports an auxiliary screen to the Vista-based computer system.
A conventional SideShow device is configured to display system information, such as time, system temperature, or battery condition of a computing device to which the SideShow device is connected. To display the system information, the conventional SideShow device passively waits for the computing device to not only to monitor but also to retrieve its system information. In addition, the conventional SideShow device relies on WINDOWS VISTA operating system on the computing device to establish a connection between the computing device and the SideShow device to send the system information. In the event the operating system of the computing device crashes or simply shuts down, the monitoring, retrieving, or establishing of the connection activities also stop. As a result, the SideShow device has no way to obtain the system information of the computing device.
To illustrate, FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram illustrating a conventional computer system 100 supporting WINDOWS VISTA and the SideShow technology. The computer system 100 includes a computing device 102 and a SideShow device 104. The computing device 102 and the SideShow device 104 are connected via a standardized data bus 106, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) or a Bluetooth connection. The computing device 102 runs Window Vista operating system 110, and the SideShow device 104, as an auxiliary system, is configured to receive and display system information 112 of the computing device 102, such as battery condition 114, fan speed 116, system time 118, system state (e.g., active or not) 120, and other diagnostic information 122 on an auxiliary display. As mentioned above, the operating system of the computing device 102 is responsible for obtaining the system information 112, establishing the standardized data bus 106, and sending the information via the data bus to the SideShow device 104. If the computing device 102 shuts down (i.e., the WINDOWS VISTA 110 stops running) or the WINDOWS VISTA 110 simply stops to function properly, the SideShow device 104 stops getting the system information 112. Furthermore, since the SideShow device 104 is configured to passively receive the system information 112 from the computing device 102, the SideShow device 104 is incapable of causing certain actions carried out by the computing device 102 to be suspended.
What is needed in the art is thus a method and system that enable the SideShow device to retrieve the system information from the computing device, regardless of the operating state of the computing device, and addresses at least the problems set forth above.